Dr Clare Farmer

Dr Clare Farmer

Dr Clare Farmer has been a member of the Deakin Criminology team since 2010. Her research interests include the challenge of balancing the competing needs of offenders, victims and the wider community within/across the criminal justice system; responses to anti-social behaviour; police powers; human rights; young offenders; and sentencing principles and practices. Clare’s PhD examined the growth of discretionary police powers in Victoria: their rationale, scrutiny and the consequences for due process and individual rights.
She has published multiple journal articles and a book from her doctoral research. Further papers are under development. Clare is currently leading a collaborative research project with the Deakin School of Psychology, to examine the effect of the expanding use of discretionary police powers to punish in the context of alcohol-related disorder and anti-social behaviour. A range of journal articles are in press, and under development. Clare recently completed a collaborative research project with Professor Bagaric, of Swinburne University, which examined sentencing outcomes and consistency across different Magistrates’ Court locations in Victoria. Three journal articles have been published for which Clare is the lead author. Clare served as a Magistrate in England for a decade, and has also completed a Master’s degree in Legal and Criminological Psychology.